Militarised assistance in Gaza not humanitarian, not aid: Amnesty chief
Agnes Callamard has slammed the Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism that has sidelined the UN and humanitarian groups. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid at the new sites.
Speaking virtually at an event hosted by the Arab Center Washington DC, the head of Amnesty International said Palestinians are pushed to seek aid in military buffer zones, monitored by facial recognition technology, and they are getting killed while trying to get food.
“That is not humanitarian, and that is not aid,” Callamard said.
She stressed that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not the result of logistic or security challenges, but a deliberate Israeli policy.
Israel is “not only fully aware that this conduct would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians Gaza, but it also intends exactly that outcome,” Callamard said. “They actually seek to secure exactly that result.”
People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on June 8
‘Food has become an opportunity for killing’: Former UN aid chief
Martin Griffiths, who now serves as director of Mediation Group International, says the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a deeply flawed system.
“Food has become an opportunity for killing – I’ve never heard of such a thing in the past. It’s quite extraordinary and … more than flawed – it’s just simply wrong,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera.
The former UN humanitarian chief said the crowds that have gathered at GHF aid distribution sites were predictable given the lack of food and other critical supplies in Gaza.
“The GHF makes some broad claims about the numbers of meals it’s distributing,” Griffiths said. But he noted that there is no monitoring of where the aid is going.
“So while that’s a lot of meals, it doesn’t mean to say that it’s actually reaching necessarily the people in need. You don’t have any system to verify it.”
